Published on IDRA Global Connections Spring 2021 Issue

By H.E. Eng. Abdullah Bin Ibrahim Al-Abdulkareem, Governor of Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC)

SWCC vision for the future is transforming the desalination industry worldwide into a zero carbon footprint, zero liquid discharge industry where the value created by
extraction of valuable minerals from the brine allows to cover fresh water production expenditures and make desalinated water the lowest cost source of water supply in the world.

We are the largest utility in the world dedicated to production of desalinated water, recognized as such by the Guinness World of Records.

The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) is the world leader in desalination plant operation and a global champion of the desalination industry. We are the largest utility in the world dedicated to production of desalinated water, recognized as such by the Guinness World of Records. At present, we are on the path of accelerated transformation forging cooperation with the private sector for joint ownership and enhancement of the performance of our desalination plants and their capacity expansion to over 10 million cubic meters per day by year 2030.

SWCC is an organization with a unique breadth of experience committed to applying the world’s best practices and know-how to continually improve our operations. SWCC has an unsurpassed track record in the development and implementation in practice of efficient, reliable, and sustainable technologies. SWCC’s activities are key to the Vision 2030 goals of “Achieving Environmental Sustainability” and “Launching Our Promising Sectors”, with a strong institutional commitment to sustainable operations and diversification of the KSA economy.

As a global desalination champion, SWCC is a recognized worldwide leader in terms of production capacity, efficiency, affordability and quality of desalinated water as well as for desalination innovation in brine mining and zero liquid discharge.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the driest countries in the world, and with an expanding population and the goals of Vision 2030 to transform the country into a high-tech industry leader worldwide, seawater desalination is the key to making this vision a reality.

SWCC has a proven record in supplying high quality potable water for households and industry throughout KSA, producing about 6 million m3/day by a mixture of thermal and reverse osmosis (RO) desalination. Transmission lines running thousands of kilometres cross the country and supply water to cities with a population of more than 30 million.

SWCC is at the forefront of efforts to enhance quality of life of our citizens by enhancing the health benefits of the water we produce by magnesium supplementation which aims to meet the new World Health Organization guidelines of drinking water even before their formal promulgation, and by implementing country-wide state-of-the-art online monitoring system of the quality of fresh water delivered to our customers.

As SWCC moves into the future we have a comprehensive plan for reduction of the energy demand and carbon footprint of our desalination plants with an ultimate goal to decrease our current energy demand with 30% by year 2025, 40% by year 2030 and eventually become carbon neutral by year 2050. The energy and carbon footprint reduction originate from three recent SWCC initiatives: (1) replacement of out thermal desalination plants with state-of-the-art RO plants and enhancement of exiting plant operations; (2) switching from hollow-fibre to spiral wound RO membranes at all of our plants; (3) developing new generation RO membranes, energy recovery devices and pump systems of enhanced energy efficiency and adopting green chemical and brine mining initiatives.

We consider brine to be a valuable resource rather than a waste: SWCC is a leader globally in innovation to extract valuable minerals and metals from desalination brine, including sodium chloride, bromine, potassium chloride, magnesium salts, and rare metals such as rubidium, lithium and caesium.

By replacing our existing thermal desalination plants with RO plants, we are reducing over 25% of our power demand. In addition, we are operating our existing desalination plants more efficiently by implementing company-wide plant operations enhancement program spearheaded by our Water Technology Research Institute (WTRI) – which yields energy savings of 10 to 25%. In the next 5 years we are planning to commercialize a new generation of SWRO membranes, high pressure pumps and energy recovery devices which will add another 5 to 15% of energy and carbon footprint reduction by year 2030. Currently, SWCC holds the Guinness World Record for the lowest energy desalination system per cubic metre of fresh water produced – 24% lower than the best operating plants in the world.

SWCC follows best practices in brine disposal and monitoring from all of our desalination plants, and we are monitoring our discharge quality continuously to make sure that the marine environment is protected and sustained. I environmentally safe. We consider brine to be a valuable resource rather than a waste: SWCC is a leader
globally in innovation to extract valuable minerals and metals from desalination brine, including sodium chloride, bromine, potassium chloride, magnesium salts, and
rare metals such as rubidium, lithium and caesium. The revenue from selling these commodities can be used to subsidize the cost of water production, with the ultimate
vision of ‘zero cost’ water while turning our desalination plants into zero liquid discharge (ZLD) facilities and brine into a source of valuable minerals.

SWCC is looking to the future with a continuing strong commitment to innovation in desalination processes. The SWCC’s research arm, the Water Technologies Research Institute (WTRI) collaborates with many of the world’s top institutions for creation of new advanced desalination and brine concentration technologies and supports SWCC with advanced analytical facilities. Areas of WTRI innovation activities include 3-D printing of spare parts for key plant components; development of next-generation low-cost, 3-D printed online sensors for plant operations, novel energy recovery devices and high-pressure pumps for enhanced energy efficiency, and the application of artificial intelligence in plant operation and maintenance.

SWCC’s key research efforts are grouped under two pillars: “Support Green” and the “Circular Economy”. The “Support Green” pillar includes all our efforts to reduce the
energy and chemical cost of desalination, to introduce the use of renewable energy resources for our desalination plants, and to apply lessons we have learned from
seawater operations to treat wastewater and brackish groundwater.

The “Circular Economy” pillar encompasses all our efforts to extract valuable minerals from the sea: minerals that are critical to supporting industry (e.g., sodium chloride
for the chlor-alkali industry); human health (e.g., addition of magnesium salts to drinking water for abatement of diabetes and cardio-vascular diseases) and for agriculture (e.g., production of magnesium and potassium salts fertilizers from brine).

SWCC aims to licence the innovations we have developed to other operators, to use our know-how for providing humanitarian aid in desalination, and to build and operate plants in emerging desalination markets.

One goal is to dramatically reduce or eliminate chemicals used at our desalination plants and for chemicals such as disinfectants and coagulants that cannot be eliminated to generate these chemicals from the desalination plant brine thereby reducing the carbon footprint for chemical production and supporting the KSA country-wide initiative to creating circular economy that turns waste into valuable products.

Most exciting of all, there is a potential to cost-effectively extract the isotope rubidium-137 from desalination plant brine – this is the key component of a new generation of waste-free cold-fusion based power generation process, allowing the Kingdom’s desalination plants to run on green energy generated from their own brine and bringing the carbon footprint of desalination plants down to zero.

SWCC is committed to the economic independence of the Kingdom from overseas suppliers of critical components, with plans to produce world-class membranes and other consumables locally.

The knowledge and experience of SWCC is transferrable to an expanding desalination sector worldwide and a major goal for the organization is to become a preferred provider of desalination solutions nationally and internationally. We offer and apply our expertise in operations and maintenance, advanced research, engineering, design, and construction to offer desalination industry participants and countries around the world. SWCC aims to licence the innovations we have developed to other operators, to use our know-how for providing humanitarian aid in desalination, and to build and operate plants in emerging desalination markets.

The summarize the vision of SWCC: We focus on implementing desalination technologies that meet the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and social benefit and continues to push the envelope in all three areas. We are committed to converting all of our desalination plants into zero-carbon footprint, zero liquid discharge, zero-cost of water production facilities by year 2030  while doubling our freshwater production capacity and enhancing quality of our desalinated water to the greater benefit of our citizens and humanity at large.